I'm On To You
by SonicHedeghog155.59
Summary: Iron Man 3- At Starks birthday party: Pepper: 'Natalie' Natasha: 'Miss Potts-' Pepper: 'Oh, don't you "Miss Potts" me! I'm on to you. You know what? Ever since you came here I…' …And in the next scene they're perfectly friendly to each other. What happened between jealousy and acceptance? Also, wasn't there a section for Iron Man stories before?


Pepper: Natalie!

Natasha: Miss Potts.

Pepper: Oh, don't you "Miss Potts" me! I'm on to you. You know what? Ever since you came here I…

…And in the next scene they're perfectly friendly to each other. What happened between jealousy and acceptance?

A/N: Also, still don't know how to put page breaks in. Please advise!

"How's your cover going at Stark?" Nick Fury turned to his agent as the other agents helped Tony Stark remove the Iron Man suit and bundled them both into the car, expecting to hear some variation of "well, sir!", perhaps with a brief explanation.

"I think I'm about to get fired." He frowned. She'd never failed a mission.

"You think Stark won't keep his mouth shut?"

"No, I think Potts doesn't like me." She said it with her standard emotionlessness, but Director Fury had known her for a long time and had always been good at reading people. She was frustrated and disappointed. This was supposed to be an easy mission in a corporation, not the terrorists and illegal arms dealers she handled with aplomb, and yet she was failing.

"What makes you think that?" He frowned. If they couldn't fix this…

She didn't look at him. "It's stupid, really. She thinks…" He cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. "That I'm trying to steal Stark away from her."

He blinked. Or winked, actually, but, semantics. He almost laughed. "Are you?"

"I prefer men, not boys." She glared at him, before noticing the humour in his eye and his slight smile, before he got serious again.

"How are we going to deal with it?"

"I need a lover."

"What you do in your personal time is none of my business."

She almost glared at him again. He was always a bit sarcastic, and some of the older agents seemed to enjoy baiting her, an old habit left over from when none of them had trusted her and they'd noticed the indifferent way she responded to their insults. It was almost a game, to get her to lose her temper. "What personal time?" She asked him calmly, and yet somehow made him feel a little guilty. She'd put in a lot of hours recently with very little down-time. "Just get a good-looking agent to turn up to Stark Enterprises with roses. Ten O'clock tomorrow."

She sashayed off towards the car, and Fury noticed Stark yelling at the agents about how they'd managed to lock the right leg of the suit directly up past his ear. Apparently, it was painful. There seemed to be a lot of swearing involved in the instructions to fix it.

Ten twenty-five the next morning had Natasha was waiting in the Stark Enterprises reception for whatever reasons she could come up with, but was fast running out of excuses. Miss Potts was apparently scouring the building for her if the missed calls on her mobile from various departments were anything to go by, but she hadn't yet tried calling the reception desk.

Or not, as the woman herself was now exiting the lift just across the foyer and around several comfortable-looking chairs. She was screwed. Her new fake lover had exactly ten seconds to walk in the door or her 100% mission success rate was going to turn into a grating 99.6%. She was completely and utterly screwed.

"Nat!" She froze, dropping two files. She knew that voice, though it had been months since she'd heard it. Spinning around and ignoring the fluttering papers, she saw _him_, smiling his crooked grin and holding a bouquet of daffodils, and she belatedly realised who Fury had sent as her boyfriend. Her reaction couldn't have been more perfect if she'd scripted it.

Desperate to get to him before Potts called her out, she ran across the foyer and into her partners arms, slipping her arms around him and pressing herself to his chest as she hugged him, desperately hoping that he thought this was part of her cover and didn't know she'd actually missed him this much. Or how much she appreciated his fantastic timing. After a moment in his arms, she pulled back a little and smiled into those grey-green eyes. "I thought you were in Europe." She spoke quietly, not wanting anyone to overhear. He smiled again and dragged her over to the side of the doors out of the way. "I was, until yesterday, and I'm flying to New Mexico later today. But Fury happened to mention you'd found some gorgeous playboy billionaire and I thought I should come over and make sure you weren't about to leave me."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Well, I was considering it, and I might not have if you'd bought roses like I asked…"

"I thought daffodils were your favourite. Does he know that?" His just-barely territorial tone set off alarm bells in her head and she suddenly realised they were standing in each other's arms in the middle of a large room with multiple witnesses. Cover or not, she was not a PDA kind of woman. She pulled herself out of his arms and headed back towards the waiting area, aiming for two seats partially hidden behind a plant. He grabbed her hand as she walked and she let out a small light-hearted laugh that carried around the room. She settled in the seat and he sat beside her, still playing with her hand. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Potts move to a place where she could watch the two. Excellent. Natasha turned her head so her hair would cover her face and continued smiling, but her voice dropped deep into sarcasm and annoyance.

"'He' is an arrogant, narcissistic asshole who would be a complete waste of oxygen if he wasn't a technological genius and Fury wasn't considering him for the Avengers Initiative." Clint reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, staring at her like she was the most fascinating person on the planet. "You're here because his girlfriend is convinced I'm trying to steal him from her, and as she's director of the company, my boss, and is planning to fire me..." She trailed off.

He smiled. "She the redhead who's been staring at us since I walked in?"

"Yes. Is she still watching?" He nodded, lifting her hand to his lips and kissing her knuckles softly. She took in a breath, wishing she had to act like she was completely enamoured with him. "And by the way, how can I leave you if we're not together in the first place?" She fixed her gaze on him, hoping he'd take the hint. He completely ignored it, resuming his playing with her hand.

"You might meet some handsome billionaire, decide you want to get married and leave me to fight the bad guys on my own." He grinned his cheekiest grin and she couldn't help but smile in return. What was wrong with her?

"No chance." She said flatly. "This is my life."

Clint watched her for a moment. "You know, I think I like Natalie. She smiles a lot." The smile froze on her face. "But she doesn't have you general bad-ass-ness."

"Thanks. I think." She meant to say more but Clint had finally let go of her hand and was sweeping her hair back, putting both of his hands on her face. She opened her mouth slightly to ask what he was doing just before he covered her mouth with his.

Her brain short circuited from shock and confusion. That was the only explanation for what she did next. She leant in closer, sliding one hand behind him into his hair and fisted the other into his shirt, drawing him closer. She opened her mouth slightly to his, battling him for dominance- noticing as she did that he was one _hell_ of a kisser.

When he pulled back slightly for air, she looked into his eyes. He wasn't _supposed_ to make her feel like this. "You should go."

His eyes flicked in alarm "Nat, I'm sorry-" He started.

"No. She's already planning on firing me for taking her boyfriend, next she'll be firing me for taking breaks when I'm not supposed to." She wasn't angry, not at all, she just needed him to get out of her air for a minute so she could get her head back on straight.

"It was a cover." He said feebly, by way of explanation. She hid the part of her that rolled over and died with that statement and focused on being happy he wasn't going to wreck their partnership for something so frivolous. She nodded.

"And now you should go."

There was a slight hint of desperation in his eyes. "You know, I'm heading off to New Mexico in an hour. This could be the last time we see each other for months." He didn't say what they always left unspoken. That this could be the last time they ever saw each other, full stop.

"I know." She said, standing up and dragging her with him. "I hate these ops." And really, one more time, couldn't hurt, could it? And it would help her cover. Or that's what she told herself as she leant in and pressed her lips to his again, just lightly, and fireworks exploded behind her eyes. "And now, you really do have to go." He smiled and handed her the flowers. She took them, smiling slightly, and if her face flushed just a little, well, it was quite hot in here. Even if she had just noticed that now.

She took the flowers and turned away, back to the scattered papers where she'd been standing before he'd walked in, feeling his eyes on her as she walked away. She busied herself organizing the files, only looking up when she heard the electronic doors open, and watched him as he walked away until he turned a corner, and was out of sight.

"Natalie." What was with her today? How in the hell had she missed someone getting that close to her? She never missed anything! She whirled around, saw her boss and started making excuses.

"Miss Potts! That wasn't what it looked like, he was just… um." She trailed off under her (Natalie's) boss's gaze, masking the not entirely small feeling of achievement as she noticed that Pepper Potts no longer looked at her with jealousy or veiled hatred, but appeared to be attempting not to grin.

"I was expecting you hours ago, I need my assistant. I need you to book me an appointment with CNN, I need a soy latte, two sugars, and I definitely need you to tell me about the gorgeous hunk of man you just kissed senseless and then sent on his way."

Oh, yeah. She was back.


End file.
